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D-Day: The Dunes
Posted By: Shadow Spartan<silent_shadow13@hotmail.com>
Date: 29 January 2003, 1:11 am


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      Private Nighthook fired the chain gun again. His entire body shook ever so violently; Kyle thought his entire body was going to fall apart. He stood straight though, to lower the amount of trembling in his body and aimed the barrel of the chain gun at the third Shade, which was slowly turning to target him. Nighthook fired again, ripping apart the shields that surround the turret. The Grunt that was operating it, jumped out at the last second, in which the turret erupted in a ball of red flame. Kyle quickly jumped off and began to push the chain gun into a better spot for which he could take out that last Shade. He put all of his weight into it, groaning as he pushed. The chain gun was heavy and couldn't be carried by four marines. However, it slowly moved to the right, so that it looked straight up at the last turret. Kyle took a break, breathing in hard, and then jumped back onto the weapon. He reloaded it, and then fired again. The turret however was already targeting him, and he felt plasma burn through the metallic shield that was implanted all around the gun. Nighthook swore to himself, but kept on firing. The impacts of the plasma bolts were affecting his aim greatly. He tried to steady the gun, but it kept on moving out of position. The turret's shields were gone, but it was still moving. A plasma round struck Nighthook in the arm. He immediately let go and fell backwards, screaming in pain. The plasma melted the armor around his biceps and burned patches of his skin. Blood seeped through the wound and into his combat uniform. Kyle winced and did his best to patch up the wound. Ripping off other parts of his uniform, and using the wet sand as a sealant, he created an odd looking bandage that served well. He stood up and was about to re-arm the nearly destroyed chain gun, when the turret exploded. Kyle shielded his eyes from the brilliant light, and then looked around. A marine, positioned near the bottom of the dune hill was reloading a Jack Hammer launcher. Kyle jumped off the chain gun and took out his assault rifle. Grabbing a pistol along the way and several plasma grenades, he charged up the huge sand dune where the Covenant was positioned. As he did this, he could hear marines behind him doing the same, cheering in victory. As he reached the top, Kyle reloaded his assault rifle, and then crouched to the ground as he peered over the top edge of the hill. The Covenant had set up some sort of radio base camp here. A small circular encampment off communication boxes and odd looking satellites made up the camp, along with more shield barriers. A group of Jackals and Grunts ran out of the camp and stood near the Covenant tank that was moving forward. The two Hunters were slowly moving forward as well. Kyle unpinned two frogs, throwing them both at the camp, and then took out all of his plasma grenades. He threw two of them at the Hunters, then the remaining two at the Covenant tank. He then stood up, taking out his pistol and running toward one of the wounded Hunters, which was using its huge battle shield as a melee weapon. It hit a marine right on top of the head, crushing the man's neck, brain stem and sticking him into the sand. The Hunter saw Nighthook and charged at him. Kyle reloaded his pistol and stood ready. The Hunter put all of its weight on one foot and literally jumped at Kyle, swinging its shield. Quickly, Nighthook leapt aside, running around the Hunter and aiming at a small spot of orange flesh that was protruding underneath the armor. He fired. The Hunter let out a scream and a long growl, the toppled off the dune, dead. Nighthook reloaded, and then turned around to see four marines rush forward and all get blasted backwards. They all flew in different directions of the dune. Kyle quickly dove behind one of the destroyed Covenant communication boxes and felt the ground tremble as another plasma round fired from the tank struck the ground. He looked up to see more marines being blasted off the hill. Swearing, he stood and unpinned three frag grenades. They all landed around the tank, exploding. The tank was weakened extremely. Smoke was billowing out from the holes in it. All of the Covenant around it were dead. Kyle threw up his last frag and caught it. He then ran forward, running straight at the tank. It was preoccupied with several marines firing their assault rifles at it. Kyle ran even faster, and then jumped, landing on top of the tank. It swerved around, trying to hit Kyle, but couldn't. Nighthook unpinned his last grenade, and then threw it inside the tank via the opening and closing hatch that held the firing turret. Turning with his left foot, he jumped off the tank with his right leg and landed on the sand. Standing quickly, he ran a few steps, and then dove forward. The turret itself exploded, followed closely by the rest of the tank. The tank slumped onto the ground, smoke billowing out of holes from the grenades. Kyle stood, smiling, then ran off to the other side of the dune hill. The rest of the marines followed. The remaining Hunter had been blasted into dozens of pieces by four frag grenades thrown by marines. Nighthook reached the edge of the hill and was about to run off the hill, when he stopped. The other dunes that made up the beach had odd shaped sand hills placed on some of them. Facing Kyle, four dunes had these oddly shaped hills. He squinted slightly, looking at the hills in front of him. They were starting to move. The marines were already on that dune hill and were noticing this odd movement too. Suddenly, Covenant Elites could be seen standing behind the three hills. They all growled, grabbed the bottom of the hill and pulled. The hills were camouflage blankets, disguising Shade gun turrets. The other hills on the dunes became turrets as well. Suddenly, teams of Covenant Ghost bikes soared through the air and took positions around the Shades. The Elites that had removed the blankets jumped into the Shades and turned them to aim at the marines. Kyle's eyes went wide.
      "Get down!" he yelled. There were around 15 marines on the hill with Shades. They all started to turn, but the turrets opened fire first. The plasma bolts and lances went right through all the marines, killing them instantly. While they all dropped, the other Shades targeted the marines around Kyle. Nighthook quickly dropped to the ground, as a volley of plasma rounds went over his head. He stood up and sprinted back. Marines around him were falling dead. They took a hint from Kyle and ran as well. Kyle was going far though. The Covenant radio camp, although destroyed, still had large metal rectangular prisms that were placed around the original camp. Kyle dropped low behind one of them, turned and fired his assault rifle briefly. He stopped, sighing. Not only were they out of range, but various types of Covenant warriors were placed more shield barriers around the Shades. The Ghosts merely maneuvered out of the way of any projectile fired at them. Nighthook looked around. They needed some form of armor on this beach. Problem was: any dropship that tried to move in would most likely be destroyed by the Shades. There were around 12 of them, spaced out on the dunes in a diamond shape. That totaled 8 Ghost bikes as well. Kyle stood up and ran to the other side of the dune, looking down at the beach where they came from. There was no way a Warthog or a tank could make it up to where he was. Not only was there the obstacles, but the steepness of the dune was too great. He ran back to the remaining marines gathered around the camp and found the only surviving high ranking officer. Lieutenant David Jones looked up from his spot and nodded at Nighthook.
      "Private Nighthook! Good to see ya son" he said, returning the salute given to him. Kyle nodded.
      "Sir, we are in a tight situation. Those shield barriers prevent any of our bullets getting to them, and we don't have a person here who can throw a grenade that far. The Jack Hammer's are all empty, and we are running low on ammo" Nighthook said, looking around him and pointing as he spoke. The Lieutenant looked around too and started pointing at marines.
      "Okay, we got around 26 marines left. Jesus, that's not a lot" the Lieutenant said. He looked around once more, and then stood up slightly.
      "Marines! My name is Lieutenant Jones of the Second Wave. Seems like I'm the only commanding officer here. I am taking charge of all of you. You take orders from me or my Corporals!" he yelled. All the marines looked at him and nodded some even cheering. Nighthook tapped the Lieutenant.
      "Sir, all the Corporals are dead" he said. The Lieutenant looked at him.
      "Not any more. I'm promoting you to Corporal Nighthook. Grab four other men and promote them" he said. Kyle smiled, and saluted.
      "Yes sir" Nighthook then carefully crawled around the boxes, heading for a private he knew.
      "Private O'Neil!" he yelled over the sound of gun fire. The private turned and crawled toward him.
      "Yes sir?" he said, saluting. Kyle returned it.
      "I'm promoting you to Corporal all right? We take orders from the Lieutenant and give them to everyone else" he said. The marine smiled and nodded. Then his face went serious.
      "Just us?" he asked. Kyle shook his head.
      "No, I gotta promote three others" he said. O'Neil nodded.
      "Let me promote two of them, you get one more" he suggested. Kyle nodded, and then left the new Corporal to find one of his good friends. Private Charlie Cunningham was trying to peg off Elites with his pistol. He swore out loud and reloaded it. Kyle tapped him on the back.
      "Cunningham, you are promoted to Corporal. We take orders from the Lieutenant, give them to the others got it?" he said, looking at the man. Charlie looked at him and nodded.
      "Got it Night. Man, are we fucked or what?" he said. Kyle shrugged.
      "Just be ready and keep up the good work" he said. Charlie nodded, and then continued to fire. Kyle went back to the Lieutenant. He looked over at O'Neil, who gave him a thumbs up sign. Kyle nodded.
      "Sir, you have 5 corporals at your command" he said. Jones looked at him.
      "Good, well done" he said merely. Jones started looked around again. Kyle cocked an eyebrow.
      "What is it sir?" he asked. Jones looked at him.
      "I need a radio. We need orders" he said. Kyle grabbed a private.
      "You got radio?" he yelled. The marine nodded and handed him a small phone connected to the radio box in the equipment pack he carried. Kyle handed the phone to Jones, who looked at the marine.
      "Patch me into the battle group" he said. The marine nodded, and fiddled with several knobs on the radio he took out. He nodded again. Jones started talking.
      "This is Lieutenant David Jones of the Second Wave to Battle group, come in please" he said. There was a moment of static, before a voice answered.
      "Roger Lieutenant, this is Colonel Brown of the cruiser Gamma Wing, go ahead" he said.
      "Sir, First and Second Waves are ineffective. We have taken the first dune in front of the beach, but all the other dunes down here are being used as firing positions for the Covenant. They have Shade gun turrets and Ghosts, not to mention a lot of infantry. We are pinned down and either need supplies or more men" he said. There was another hiss of static, and then a voice returned.
      "Roger that Lieutenant, your situation is understood. Do you believe it is possible to land armor on the beach?" he asked. The Lieutenant looked up at Kyle, who immediately shook his head and pointed to the beach. Jones nodded.
      "Negative, a dropship would either be shot down by the turrets, or the armor would be stuck, trying to get up that hell of a mess beach" he said. The Colonel returned.
      "Jesus, you boys are in a tight situation. All right, we will forgo the armor for now, but get you some reinforcements down there. We will use parachutes to drop you some supplies. What do you need?" he asked. Jones smiled.
      "Everything sir. Ammo, grenades, sniper rifles, Jack Hammers, assault rifles, pistols, medical kits, surgeon kits, the whole lot. We are hit pretty bad here sir" he said.
      "Well, that may take a few seconds, so don't expect it right away. I am sending you the Third wave, and, some other people. The supplies will come later, understood?" he said. Jones smiled again.
      "Roger that sir, understood, out" he said. The Lieutenant handed the radio back to the marine, then crouched up.
      "Gentlemen, in a few minutes we are going to be reinforced with the Third wave and after that, a huge amount of supplies" he said happily. The whole group cheered. Jones waited for silence.
      "Use your pistols to try to pick them off, or just scare them with the assault rifles. Don't use to much though" he said. The marines all cheered and began to open fire. The Lieutenant crouched back down, smiling. He looked at Kyle.
      "Get ready to usher those reinforcements over here" he said. Nighthook nodded, and then ran of toward the beach. As he did, he took a moment to look around. All of the wounded were gathered near the first destroyed Pelican. The passenger hold was being used as a small hospital. There were using lots of wreckage as cover and protection. The field medics had around six marines helping them out. The ammo dump that had been there was gone, all used up. Kyle overlooked the wounded. He winced in pain as he looked at them all. Broken limbs, missing limbs, wounds from shots, and several marines had lost their eye sight, another had no hair. Blood was leaking all over the place. Kyle patted one of the field medics on the back, who was holding onto the hand of a now dead marine. Kyle nodded.
      "You did all you could medic. You did all you could" he repeated. The medic nodded and continued to sit there. Kyle suddenly heard the roar of engines and looked towards the sky. Three Pelican dropships were moving in. They hovered over the beach for a moment, before slowly descending, the passenger ramp opening. Kyle cocked his eyebrow. The Third wave only filled up two Pelicans. Why was there a third? He shrugged, then ran toward them. The Third wave consisted of marines and Special Forces. The leader, Lieutenant Jonathan Carlson ran up to him. Kyle saluted.
      "Lieutenant Carlson, welcome to hell" he said. Jonathan chuckled.
      "What's up Corporal?" he asked. Kyle pointed to the dune.
      "We are up there, using a Covenant radio camp as a staging area. There may not be a lot of room for you and all your men, so you may as well keep some here near our hospital" he reported. Carlson nodded, and then turned to his men.
      "First and Second platoons with me, rest of ya, stay here with the hospital, we will call you if assistance is needed" he yelled. The marines cheered and followed the Lieutenant. The dropships took off, and the third one touched down. Kyle walked over toward it and watched. The ramp lowered and six figures stepped out onto the beach. Kyle suddenly realized who they were and stood straight, saluting. The six Spartan III's walked toward him, the lead one returning it. Kyle smiled.
      "Master Chief Sir! Good to see ya" he said. The huge behemoth nodded and looked around. They wore a sandy brown type of armor, obviously to be used as camouflage. The Master Chief looked at Kyle.
      "What's going on Corporal?" he asked. Kyle pointed to the dune.
      "Rest of us is all up there sir. Covenant have us pinned down good. 12 Shade gun turrets, 8 Ghost bikes, and a hell of a lot of infantry. They are using the other dunes surrounding that one to pin us down. We can't even stand up without being shot. The Covenant radio camp up there is providing us with cover and protection, but we are running out of room" he reported. The Master Chief nodded.
      "Tell your Lieutenant that we are here to coordinate an attack plan along with the marine core. Your help is definitely needed in this situation" he said. Kyle saluted.
      "Yes sir. I will" he said. Kyle turned swiftly on his heel and ran back up the beach, toward the dune. He looked around briefly to see the Spartans head toward the hospital, obviously to strategize. Kyle reached the top, nearly out of breath and dropped low. He crawled toward Lieutenant Jones, who was chatting with Lieutenant Carlson. Kyle saluted, then nodded toward the beach, smiling.
      "Spartans are here sir" he said happily. Jones eyes went wide with amazement, and he leaned up, trying to see.
      "Jesus, this is serious. They here to help?" he asked. Kyle nodded.
      "They are here to coordinate an attack plan with us to wipe out the Covenant" --..TO BE CONTINUED--.





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